
2
2
SABBATH-SCHOOL LESSON QUARTERLY.
ness and with the rulers of this world. Witness Israel in
Egypt, in Babylon, and under Persian rule. See the Chris-
tians under pagan emperors, under so-called Christian em-
perors, and finally under the papal power. A double object
has been accomplished in all these experiences. By them God
has tried and purified His people, and brought light to those
in darkness.
2.
"A great crisis awaits the people of God. A crisis awaits
the world. The most momentous struggle of all the ages is
just before us. Events which, for more than thirty years, we
have, upon the authority of the prophetic word, declared to
be impending, are now taking place before our eyes."-
-
es-
timonies, No. 33, page 239.
"Fearful is the issue to which the
world is to be brought."—Great
Controversy, page 604.
3.
"Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced
as enemies of law and order, as breaking down the moral
restraints of society, causing anarchy and corruption, and
calling down the judgments of God upon the earth."—Great
Controversy, page 592.
(See, also, pages 590, 591, 614.)
4.
Nebuchadnezzar's decree was in violation of the second
commandment, or a command to worship in a false way. The
decree under Darius was in direct conflict with the first com-
mandment, or a prohibition to worship in the right way. One
decree meant that "you must worship a false god," the other
"you can not worship the true." So in the closing conflict
"the decree will go forth that they must disregard the Sab-
bath of the fourth commandment, and honor the first day,
or lose their
lives,"—Testimonies, Vol. I, pages 353, 354.
The
test with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answers to the
requirement that we
must
keep Sunday, and Daniel's test to
the
prohibition
to keep the seventh day, the true Sabbath.
5.
"Let a man be what he may—Jew, seventh-day observer
of some other denomination, or those who do not believe in
the Christian sabbath—let the law apply to every one, that
there shall be no public desecration of the first day of the
week, the Christian sabbath, the day of rest for the nation.
They may hold any other day as sacred, and observe it; but
that day which is the one day in seven for the nation at
large, let that not be publicly desecrated by any one, by officer
in the government, or by private citizen, high or low, rich
or poor."—Dr.
McAllister, in speech at Lakeside, Ohio, July,
1887.
6.
The hand is the symbol of labor. "Whatsoever thy
"Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will sena
forth laborers into His harvest."